<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>A New Friend? by BasicallySnakespere</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26715532">A New Friend?</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/BasicallySnakespere/pseuds/BasicallySnakespere'>BasicallySnakespere</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Sanders Sides (Web Series)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Mer AU, patton is tiny mer, tw blood, tw shark mention, virgil is normal sized</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 07:33:49</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>572</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26715532</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/BasicallySnakespere/pseuds/BasicallySnakespere</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Virgil loves collecting shiny things. That gets him in trouble a lot. But this time, it might have made him a friend.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>none yet</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>28</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A New Friend?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was pretty, and his instincts shouted at him to grab it.</p><p>So he did, naturally. He regretted it not a moment later. He dropped the shell, clutching his now bleeding hand. Shit.</p><p>He looked around for something to bandage the cut, but there were only rocks, shells, and glass. This close to the shore, humans left all sorts of things in the bay. It made it a great place for Virgil to scavenge, but unfortunately, that also attracted a lot of unsavory characters. And with his bleeding hand leaking into the water, a shark mer was sure to show up.</p><p>He cursed his luck, and grabbed the shell quickly, shoving it into his bag. He wasn’t just going to leave it there. He turned tail and fled, flicking his tail and turning quickly. </p><p>He could smell the blood now, and that meant a shark certainly could. He swam through the water, looking for a hiding spot.</p><p>There, a small secluded cave deep in the cliff. It was big enough he could fit, but small enough that he could fight off anything else that could. He swam in and curled up in the back, clenching his injured hand to stop more blood from leaking out. </p><p>He closed his eyes, taking deep breaths to calm himself.</p><p>It wasn’t even a close encounter, but his heart was pounding, his chest heaving, his senses on overdrive.</p><p>“Are you okay?” </p><p>If he wasn’t paniccking before, he was now, the soft, quiet voice from seemingly nowhere scaring the “living daylights” (a drylander phrase) out of him. He looked around frantically, only for a small cough to gain his attention.</p><p>There, in the shell, was a tiny mer. They had soft white hair, and a pale blue tale, probably some kind of beta fish. Their head was peaking out of the shell, and maybe Virgil wasn’t the biggest mer out there, but the little guy was tiny even to him!</p><p>“Uh, yeah, yeah. Just a little spooked. Sorry for stealing your home.”</p><p>“It’s alright, its not really my home, but I couldn’t swim much further, and this seemed like a good spot to hide.”</p><p>“Yeah, you might want to avoid pretty, shiny things like shells or glass, I’m not the only mer who collects things. Though I do know one mer who only collects trash, I don’t go over to his place very often, he kinda has a hording problem.” Shit, now he was rambling. “I’m Virgil, by the way.”</p><p>“I’m Patton, nice to meet you kiddo!” Kiddo? But Virgil couldn’t be younger then the tiny mer. </p><p>He couldn’t ponder the thought any longer, because Patton turned pale, and his eyes rolled back into his head, and the little guy went limb, sending Virgil into another panic.</p><p>He gently tugged the mer out of the shell, checking over him for injuries. There, Virgil saw it, specks of gray along his tail. Grayscale was a rare illness among small fish, only passed down through blood. He must have inherited the trait from his mom. </p><p>Luckily, Virgil’s best friend was a healer. Logan would know what to do. He set the poor mer back into the shell, and ever so gently craddled it in his hands as he left the cave, keeping a careful watch out for sharks.</p><p>He didn’t warm up to people quickly, but already Virgil didn’t know what he’d do if Logan couldn’t save his new friend.</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>